If you are looking for a powerful, compelling, uplifting, depressing ... and so much more, book to read, try Our Mothers' War: American Women at Home and at the Front During World War II, by Emily Ellin. Inspired by her mother, and the letters she found that had been written during the war, the author took that information and wrote this amazing book. There are pilots, nurses, entertainers, spies, and traitors, there are even the prostitutes! There are those who worked in their home town, or overseas. They served far and wide, without complaint and under horrible conditions, and not just because of where they were, but because the men didn't want them around, didn't think they could do the job as well ... or, even worse, due to the color of their skin. This was just a remarkable read.

Read this book along with the one above: When Our Mothers Went to War: an Illustrated History of Women in World War II, by Margaret Regis, it's a wonderful companion! Lots of pictures with short entries about women and events that were explained in greater depth in Our Mothers' War (it's included in the bibliography here). I loved seeing all the pictures of a subject that was relatively new to me.

Reading Hermit With Dog